


Reyes

by FrankiValerie



Series: After Omega [13]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 09:23:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11101629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrankiValerie/pseuds/FrankiValerie
Summary: .... all these new chapters apparently need to have names beginning with R.Really Rather Ridiculous, Right?As always, Caleb (and Reyes!) created by @tortuga_rebel on twitter and I have his gorgeous wrtier's permission to post.  This one is almost exactly the same as the previous write up of A.O. so... anyone who read the original, you know what's coming.All kinds of feels.





	Reyes

As usual with the properties Caleb opted for, the safe house appeared a lot nicer on the inside than the out. It was much bigger too. The window showed a rarely breathtaking view of the outside of Omega’s docks, and the clear, sparkling void surrounding.

Usually he’d step up behind her and wrap his arms around her waist, or he’d sit back on the sofa and watch her. This time he was straight to the kitchen, rummaging through cupboards, crashing about looking for something.

Jack settled herself on the sofa just Caleb returned with a couple of shot glasses and a bottle of booze. He placed them down onto the coffee table before them and poured out the two shots. She watched him carefully. He pushed one of the filled shot glasses over to her, knocking back his own then pouring another and staring at it, hunched forward resting his elbows on his knees. Jack sat back and waited.

Caleb was silent for a long time before finally looking up at Jack, “How much have I told you about my childhood?”

Jack took a moment to think back on all their long conversations between fighting and fucking, “Next to nothing.” She felt guilty now at how often she had talked about herself and realising that she had never asked much about Caleb’s childhood.   

He nodded, “Reckon it’s time I tell you... You comfy? Got booze?”

She slowly grabbed up the shot he poured for her and settled back, cradling it in her lap and nodded, listening intently.

“I was born on one of the poor colony worlds. The worlds that are settled quickly with a lot of fanfare then are quickly forgotten. It was a working colony. Industrial. Everyone who could work, did. Most did their share, but there were some who were lazy. They found others to do their work. Profiteers. Criminals. They stood on the backs of others and took everything they could. They were the worst kind of men…” He paused to take another shot, his jaw clenching from more than just the stinging afterburn as he continued, “My father…” Jack had never heard so much hate in his voice, “...was one of them.”

He paused again, but she waited patiently for him to continue. She wouldn’t push, only listen.

“Ain't much I wanna say about him right now other than he was a fucking ogre of a man and I ain't got no regrets killing him.  When he was gone, mum and me, we had the best year we'd ever had. Free of him. It was fucking magic. But it didn't last. 

“After I'd killed that fucker, I was maybe 9… A year after that a sickness ran through the colony. Fucking horrible thing. People were dying in the worst ways. Like something outta the worst holo flicks. The authorities… they shipped in an antidote. But there wasn't enough to go round. So it got rationed. Got given to the people they thought were the most important. Who it got given to, how many each family got… it tore families apart. Made enemies of brothers; people killed for it.

“Me and my mum - we got one dose. I pleaded with my mum that she be the one to take it. That she deserved it more. But she wasn't gonna have any of that. She was a stubborn woman and when she'd made up her mind… ain't nothing gonna stop her. So I took the dose and didn't get sick. But mum.... wasn't so lucky. Few weeks after I took the dose she started showing signs. I knew she was sick. I knew what was gonna happen. What she'd have to suffer. And I sure as fuck wasn't gonna let it happen.

“So I started asking around. I knew there was a black market for the antidote. There always fucking is. People making money outta the desperation of others. But this was my mum. I'd have fucking done anything. So I asked around.I found out Reyes was the guy to talk to. I brokered a deal. He'd give me a dose of the cure and in return I'd do jobs for him. I didn't think too hard about what he got me to do. I… did bad things. I still have nightmares…”

Caleb paused, looking down again. Jack clenched her fists, her jaw stiffened. She knew exactly what kind of fucked up things the lowest of the low would make even a child go through. Already she wanted this Reyes guy dead; slow and painful.

When he began to speak again, it was quieter, “...Reckon there's things a ten year old boy should never see...but it was my mum. I'd have done anything for her. So I did what I was told. And at the end I got the cure. I remember that day like it was fucking yesterday. I ran back to our hut, clutching that cure so fucking tight. I found my mum...so wasted away. So sick. But I had the cure. Everything was gonna be ok. So I helped her up and helped her swallow it. And then I watched as she died in front of me. I watched as she took her last breath and I didn't understand.”  He blinked a few times, tears now falling down his cheeks, “I didn't understand how she could die. I'd given her the cure. She should have been ok.”

He paused again, blinking away his tears, turning his head from Jack as he did, knocking back his next shot.

His voice shook under the weight of his emotions, he still continued, “...I found out later Reyes had watered down the cure.

Bastard never had any intention of giving me the full dose. My mother died because of him. Because of his greed. His fucking power trip. He took her from me. And worse... He robbed me of the chance to spend her last months with her. I should have been with her - by her side. Instead I was doing his dirty work and risking my life to increase his fucking empire.” He paused again, his body tensed with rage, “I owe that fucker a slow death. And I'm gonna make sure I bleed every single drop of pain and terror and misery that I can outta him.”

Once Jack was sure he’d finished, he shuffled over, wrapped an arm around his back, brushed his tears away with her thumb and kissed his forehead. She tried to keep her voice steady, strong for him. He needed that kind of strength right now. “So that's what we'll do.”

He hesitated, sniffing; he couldn't look at her, “...we?”

She lowered her voice and stroked his hair, “I’m here to help, Caleb. Whatever you need. Might have an issue if you want me to step back but if you need anything... you got it.”

He was quiet again for a long while. She kept him held close, continued stroking his hair. 

“I want to see this guy dead”. He finally said, strength returning to his voice.

Jack nodded and laid her head against his, “He’s already dead, C. He just doesn't know it yet.”

Caleb turned to her, hesitant, “Jack… I don't wanna ask you to find him if you don't wanna.  This fucker's already taken someone I cared about.”

She lifted her head and met his eyes, “I've dealt with guys like that before and torn them apart. There’s nothing he can do to hurt me and he’s gonna pay for what he did to your mom… what he’s done to you.”

He paused, searching her eyes, “You sure about this, Jack?”

She nodded, “You’d do the same for me.”

This time there was no hesitation, “In a heartbeat.”

“Exactly. Whatever you need me for, C. I’d… I’d do anything for you”

He reached out to rest a hand on her waist and squeezed gently “Thanks. Sorry for dumping all that on you. Just kinda... all came out.”

She brushed her fingers through his hair, “No need to apologise.”

He was silent for a long time before nodding again. “I don't tell many people that story you know.”

She knew those kinds of stories. She had them. She’d shared them with him.She wrapped her other arm tightly around him and squeezed him close, “Then... I'm... It means a lot that you told me, Caleb.”

Caleb was silent, again, for a long time before he put his arm around Jack and squeezed her gently, “Mom’s still buried there. At the colony I mean.”

He rested back and Jack lay her head on his shoulder, “You ever visit?”

He shook his head, rolling the empty shot glass in his fingers, “Nah, I couldn’t.” He swallowed hard, “Not alone. Maybe if I had someone with me.”

Jack nodded and looked up at him, “After we end Reyes?”

He looked down to her and paused, “You’d want to go?”

Jack smiled softly, “Yeah, C, anything for you.”

He squeezed her close again, “Thanks. That...it means a whole fucking lot.”

She wrapped her arm around his waist and reached up to kiss his cheek, “You’d do the same for me.”

“Yeah. Reckon I'd do anything I could. Don't think I'll find anyone else who'd put up with my shit the way you do “ He smiled warmly, meeting her eyes again. She looked happy again, like her old self. He wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or not that one of his most painful, private stories made her happy but he was overjoyed to see the Jack he knew behind her eyes again.

He cleared his throat and leaned forward to pour them another two shots, “Guess you see me different now?”

He passed her shot to her and she knocked it back without hesitation, “Should I?”

“You tell me. Figure knowing about my past gives you a different picture of me.”

“Same picture, C, I just... I see more of it now.”

“That a good thing or a bad thing, J?”

She smiled softly, meeting his eyes, “I’d say it’s good.”

“Yeah? Ain’t gonna avoid me like the plague then?”

She laughed and his heart lifted, “Even if I wanted to avoid you, Caleb, I never could… You always find me somewhere.”

She winked and gestured for him to pour her another shot. He did and watched as she knocked it back. Then he poured her another.  Jack could handle her drink like no woman he’d ever seen; but this time she was tired and she hadn’t been eating as well as she normally did. It was only another half hour before she was asleep in his arms, shot glass still in her hand. He had stopped drinking without her noticing and easily lifted her from the sofa, carried her to the bed and tucked her in.

He leaned over her, brushed her hair away from her face, whispering softly, “Ain’t letting you get hurt again, Jack.  Not because of me.  Never by someone as low as him… I hope you’ll forgive me.” he placed a soft kiss on her temple and silently left the safe house.


End file.
